While consumers are cutting back on a lot of things because of the recession, they’re still plunking down big bucks for designer jeans. (LA Times)

Romantic “devices” and his-and-hers lubricants are flying off the shelves in supermarkets and drug-stores during the recession. (Advertising Age)

Malls, those ubiquitous shopping meccas that sprang up in the 1950s, are turning into ghost towns in the recession, with many struggling properties reduced to largely vacant shells. (Wall Street Journal)

The idea of the recession causing families to move en masse out of New York City “is about as likely as a giant ape climbing on top of the Empire State Building,” writes Hugo Lindgren. (New York Mag)

Although bartering has a long history, both users and facilitators link the recent spike in goods-trading to an obvious common denominator — recession. (Denver Post)

Attendance at movie theaters this year has jumped 14 percent, as recession-weary Americans are increasingly opting for films’ escapism. (LA Times via San Jose Mercury News)

The number of companies offering traditional defined benefit pension plans was shrinking even before the recession, but the downturn has accelerated the decline. (USA Today)

“With chronic instability comes a shift in loyalty from the company to one’s own calling, skills and personal life. Many people are embracing the risks of entrepreneurship, and others … are transforming what they do within a large corporation.” (Forbes)

In times of economic crisis, women are more likely to go on a shopping spree than in normal times. “This type of spending, or compensatory consumption, serves as a way of regulating intense emotions,” said Karen Pine, a University of Hertfordshire professor. (LiveScience via FoxNews)

The recession could be deadly for many pets, whose owners can’t afford to keep them or pay for vet bills. 780,000 pets — including 200,000 dogs — could be put down as the recession takes its toll. (MomLogic)

Tags: entrepreneurship, jeans, movies, pension, pets, recession, relocating for the recession, sex toys, shopping in the recession

Readers of the New York Times' Economix blog may have noticed Casey B. Mulligan's post Wednesday on new research that finds women less satisfied with their lives now than they have been for the last 35 years. The results of the study are noteworthy because they show a decline in women's happiness during a period of ever-increasing opportunity. Lest you think that this means women shouldn't have entered the workplace, the study shows that men's happiness has also declined, and that most women still regard more opportunity—rather than less—as an upside. And women who work don't seem to be unhappier than women who stay at home. Granting that the study is capturing a real shift, what, then, might account for it? Meghan commented in the XX Factor:

it may be, paradoxically, that the women's movement has decreased women's happiness at this moment in time because "the increased opportunity to succeed in many dimensions may have led to an increased likelihood in believing that one's life is not measuring up." The paradox of choice model might explain, too, why men's happiness has also declined—just not as extremely as women's.

Click here to read the rest of her post. And tell us what you think.

Tags: happiness study, women in the workforce, women in the workplace, women's liberation, workplace equity